The [Free] Will of the Dragons

[Siar]

Aside from the Aspect leaders, do dragons have free will?

Why do I ask such a question? Two words: Deathwing and Malygos.

These 2 aspect leaders are thus far the only ones (in present time) who have essentially become villains in the warcraft universe and gone against the wyrmcrest accord.

Before Deathwings corruption he was known as Neltharion who was pretty much a good guy additionally we have encountered blue drakes that have proven benevolent in their intentions in the past at the Sunwell.

Now for various reasons both Deathwing and Malygos have become villains in the warcraft universe, and this is where my question comes into play. When they turn, every member of the aspect stacks support behind their aspect leader no matter how evil they become. They never once question the motives of their leaders, they just go along with whatever it is they decide.

Is it just a dragon social construct to have fierce and immovable loyalty towards their relevant aspect leaders no matter their own opinions? Or are the wills of each dragon bound to an aspect? A single will encompassing every dragon in an aspect so that there are really only 5 dragon wills.

If the latter is true, what happens when an aspect leader is killed off like Malygos? and soon Deathwing.

[gagglone]

The 5 aspects were created to cover the 5 domains. They each have their own brood. They have their own free will, they just follow what they're told because thats how they were raised. Its like being raised by your parents to do good in school, be hardworking you're going to be a good person. But if your parents do drugs, don't work, etc... you're probably going to fall in line. Granted there are always deviations from that. Hence blue dragons that aren't evil.

[Authoritaz]

Blue dragons are like blue balls, they just want the love.

[Heljak]

That's a very interesting question actually and I pondered it a while myself. There are a few black dragon quest givers who didn't strike me as evil (particularly that bloke in Blade's Edge Mountain who is friends with Rexxar) and ofc there's the Sunwell dragons.

What you need to remember is that dragons in WarCraft have a sense of superiority. They think they are very important and very clever, and in a lot of cases they are. When the oldest and wisest dragon of your clan does something like Malygos does, the other dragons in blue flight fall in line. They worship Malygos and idolise him. I would imagine to most blue dragons Malygos can do no wrong, therefore whatever he does they will approve of.

Alternatively it has been implied that some blue dragons are pretty twisted and tyrannical, particularly Malygos' second consort, the one killed during the course of a quest chain in Coldarra. Fear of retribution is what keeps many of the "mage hunters" in line, so for all we know some of the blue dragonflight live in constant fear of their master's wrath.

A third possibility is that the dragons have a kind of magical connection to their Aspect. When Deathwing went nuts, so did his dragonflight. They probably shared the pain of their Master as he became corrupted and that in turn corrupted them as well.

[deathbysushi-(-_-)-]

Blue dragons are like blue balls, they just want the love. so yes they are free willed

[thoukaia]

think about it for a sec:

malygos went insane and got killed
deathwing is bad and destroys stuff so will get killed
nozdormu is most likely the leader of the infinite dragonflight so will get killed (looking forward to the fight)
ysera is being corrupted by the emerald nightmare so will get killed

i know what you're starting to think of. yes. alexstrasza is behind their corruption. she acts all cool and nice now but in the end you'll see she's the one that pulls the strings.

[Osmigos]

Malygos never turned evil or went insane.
I'm sad that so many people have missed this wonderful part of the WoW story, because for me it's the best part of WotLK.

***MAJOR SPOILER ALERT***


The old gods corrupted the Titan's creations and turned them into the warped 'flesh' races that now inhabit Azeroth. When the Titans found out what had been done, they determined that it was impossible to cure the 'infection' of the old gods without risking the death of the whole world. Instead they created the dragon aspects to watch over the world and, if it came to it, to eradicate the disease anyways.
Malygos has come to the conclusion that the infection can no longer be contained, and is carrying out the task given to him by the Titans by exterminating all life on Azeroth.

When I first witnessed the history presented in the Halls of Stone I was floored. The player races from Azeroth were actually warped mutants caused by an alien infection and not creations of the Titans. I was forced to wonder how my character and faction really fit into the world, and more importantly, what would really happen with the Titan's impending return...

[Sesto]

Malygos never turned evil or went insane.
I'm sad that so many people have missed this wonderful part of the WoW story, because for me it's the best part of WotLK.

***MAJOR SPOILER ALERT***


The old gods corrupted the Titan's creations and turned them into the warped 'flesh' races that now inhabit Azeroth. When the Titans found out what had been done, they determined that it was impossible to cure the 'infection' of the old gods without risking the death of the whole world. Instead they created the dragon aspects to watch over the world and, if it came to it, to eradicate the disease anyways.
Malygos has come to the conclusion that the infection can no longer be contained, and is carrying out the task given to him by the Titans by exterminating all life on Azeroth.

When I first witnessed the history presented in the Halls of Stone I was floored. The player races from Azeroth were actually warped mutants caused by an alien infection and not creations of the Titans. I was forced to wonder how my character and faction really fit into the world, and more importantly, what would really happen with the Titan's impending return...

I thought Malygos was insane, then when he was sane again he thought that the mortal races we going to end up destroying Azeroth because they use magic for the wrong things (Well of eternity, Dark Portal, etc)

[Siar]

Malygos never turned evil or went insane.
I'm sad that so many people have missed this wonderful part of the WoW story, because for me it's the best part of WotLK.

***MAJOR SPOILER ALERT***


The old gods corrupted the Titan's creations and turned them into the warped 'flesh' races that now inhabit Azeroth. When the Titans found out what had been done, they determined that it was impossible to cure the 'infection' of the old gods without risking the death of the whole world. Instead they created the dragon aspects to watch over the world and, if it came to it, to eradicate the disease anyways.
Malygos has come to the conclusion that the infection can no longer be contained, and is carrying out the task given to him by the Titans by exterminating all life on Azeroth.

When I first witnessed the history presented in the Halls of Stone I was floored. The player races from Azeroth were actually warped mutants caused by an alien infection and not creations of the Titans. I was forced to wonder how my character and faction really fit into the world, and more importantly, what would really happen with the Titan's impending return...

Turning against the wyrmcrest accord and threatening to wipe out all life on Azeroth is pretty evil no matter what.
You seem to think that he's justified in his believes by saying that he was merely fulfilling the will of the titans. Which, btw, was Agalons purpose as well and he didn't destroy us in the end did he.

You can't say "he's not evil" because he has just decided to do what he was made to do. Quite clearly what you claim he was made to do is pretty evil, destroying all life on Azeroth.

To claim that Malygos is not evil in his intentions is to say that the "right" thing to do would be to go along with his plan to exterminate all life on Azeroth, now I'm pretty sure you don't want to go and commit suicide to fulfill the will of the titans to do the 'right' thing.

So the choice here is quite simple, either you admit that Malygos is evil or you admit that every living thing on Azeroth aside from the blue dragon flight is evil without exception. Now it seems extremely unlikely that every living being on Azeroth harbours evil intentions, so the obvious and correct choice is to say that Malygos is indeed evil.

Besides which you are deviating from the point here, the original question is asking whether dragons have free will or simply blind and zealous loyalty.

[Serai]

wouldnt neltharions defection prove they do have free wil, since he clearly deviated from the original plan?

[Deleted]

wouldnt neltharions defection prove they do have free wil, since he clearly deviated from the original plan?

His defection wasn't a case of "Free Will" as he was corrupted by the Old Gods. He is also partly responsible for what happened to Malygos.

[Deleted]

There are several things about Malygos, but certainly eradicating all forms of life isn't in his mission.
- he went almost insane because his flight was all but eradicated (and then somewhat saved and repopulated, but still)
- his mission is to govern the use of magic, and magic is what brought the Legion to Azeroth. While it might have been tolerable for a time, he decided that the use of magic by humans and other races was becoming far too omnipresent and reckless, thus all the work done on capturing mages and redirecting leylines. That aim is mostly sane and in agreement with his instructions.

The problem is that because of mental instability from 1st point or whatever other influence, he did push this much too far in a "if you're not with me, you're against me" way concerning the other flights, and a "even if i destroy the whole world and life it doesn't matter as long as i successfully stop the use of magic". That is not in keeping with his instructions, and hasn't got much to do with the fact that we are ouselves parasites and all that.

We do deviate from the plan and need to be corrected, that's one thing, but the measure Malygos takes threated the whole world and interferes with the domains of the other flights (well, mainly Alextrasza as the aspect of life) and is not a sane decision.

[Draelan]

Malygos never turned evil or went insane.
I'm sad that so many people have missed this wonderful part of the WoW story, because for me it's the best part of WotLK.

***MAJOR SPOILER ALERT***


The old gods corrupted the Titan's creations and turned them into the warped 'flesh' races that now inhabit Azeroth. When the Titans found out what had been done, they determined that it was impossible to cure the 'infection' of the old gods without risking the death of the whole world. Instead they created the dragon aspects to watch over the world and, if it came to it, to eradicate the disease anyways.
Malygos has come to the conclusion that the infection can no longer be contained, and is carrying out the task given to him by the Titans by exterminating all life on Azeroth.

When I first witnessed the history presented in the Halls of Stone I was floored. The player races from Azeroth were actually warped mutants caused by an alien infection and not creations of the Titans. I was forced to wonder how my character and faction really fit into the world, and more importantly, what would really happen with the Titan's impending return...

I do enjoy reading up on lore, but some of what you have written doesn't seem to match up with what I have read. Yes, some of the races are a result of the Curse of Flesh, (dwarves, gnomes, troggs, etc.) but the way you say it you make it sound like the dragon Aspects were created specifically to monitor these afflicted races, which they were not. The Dragon Aspects were created to gaurd the world in general, each given dominion over a separate domain. I've never read anything about them being charged with dealing with the curse of flesh and the races it affected.

As for Malygos specifically, he was, indeed, driven insane with grief when his flight was nearly wiped out by Deathwing. Only recently was he brought back to his senses, and his duties as the aspect of magic. He realized that the mortal races have gone too long without anyone monitoring their use of magic, and things are getting out of hand again. (Or, at least, so he fears.) Not surprisingly, though sadly enough, Malygos has a sort of knee-jerk reaction to this. He may feel guilty because it was the reckless use of magic that first drew the attention of the Burning Legion, and it was his domain to monitor. (So, in a way, he failed at his job, which lead to massive destruction.) This time, he's determined not to repeat that mistake, so begins working to wrest ALL magic from the mortal races. After all, the apparently can't be trusted with it. His intentions were noble, he wanted to save Azeroth from repeating that terrible mistake. However, he went to far. Exterminating those magic users who would not come under his direct control, redirecting the ley-lines (which has the side effect of negatively impacting the natural world and its creatures), and refusing to listen to the other Aspects and then lashing out at them when they would not support his actions. The other Aspects had no choice but to react when Malygos refused to see reason. They had their own realms to protect as well. (most notably, Alexstrasza guarding life, and Ysera guarding nature, both of which were directly impacted.) Was Malygos good or evil? I'd say neither. Overall, I think his intentions were good, but he suffered from a severe case of tunnel vision when seeking his goal, and was unable to truly see that he was doing more harm than good. His end was tragic, and I can't help but feel sorry for him.